Wednesday, Apr 2 2014

This Sunday is my first half marathon! I am really pumped. I feel pretty confident about this race, more confident than ever. It really does not take that much for me to feel more confident because I usually only doubt myself. This time is different.

This past Sunday was our last Training Team run. I ran with the 4 marathoners. I paced all their runs except for when they did 20 miles OR 4 hours. Since they had so many more miles to run than the half marathoners we would take different routes so we would not have to loop as many times. I enjoyed the smaller group but I also missed working with the half marathoners. We did a 10 miles run, it felt easy and like I could have run 5 more miles. We were at a flat 12:00 pace.

Then on Tuesday I my RC wanted to meet me on the track for a "tune-up" Sessions. We did the basic warm up running drills and hurdle work. Then he wanted me to run and make sure my pacing was good. I did 1 mile at the 10:40 pace, I was pretty even on my lap splits. Then we did 1/2 mile at 10:20 pace and then a 1/2 mile at 10:00 pace. After I was done Tim said "Your ready." NO garmin just me running by feel. All those races I did really paid off. I am getting better at running by feel rather than relying on my garmin all the time.

So for the half marathon my race plan is to run the first 8 miles at the 10:40 pace. It should mostly feel pretty easy until mile 6, mile 6-8 are called "Holy Hills." They have an archway for this segment that says "Holy Hills" on it, it is black and then they have a priest giving out holy water. It is a 2 miles segment of long hill climbs. This is where I bombed at the half last year. On Monday I ran this segment with a friend and while running I was thinking "I got this."

After mile 8 I will increase my speed a little to 10:25-:10:30, it should feel more like a tempo run. Then mile 11-13.1 my effort will increase to a 5K race pace. If all goes well I should break 2:20 easy.

Thank you everyone for your support and willing to listen to me geek out on the running. Your support means so much to me and will keep me going on Sunday.

Oh and one other thing. I don't think I will be listening to music. I have not been listening to music on any of my races lately. Tim told me the music will mess with my pacing. ALSO, I have not been using a fuel belt during training. I will not be wearing a fuel belt during the race, I will just rely on the water stations. I will just be caring 2 GU gels in my little zipper area. I am so excited to be running without the added bulk. Look at me going all minimal except for the shoes. This whole training time I have not used any gu or gatorade on all those long runs. ONly water when it was a little warmer but that was like never this year.

race day temps are looking decent as I have been weather watching daily, looks like 35-40 temp for start time. I will stay at the race to watch the marathoners cross the line. They were so sweet and happy that I will be there to cheer them on.

My carry along is Life Savers. I've tried Gu but don't like the taste or consistency. I get tired of Life Savers by the end of a half or full but it keeps me from crashing.

That sound the priest heard was a bunch of gears grinding together as my brain went "tilt". I may actually grow to like this though since I no longer feel guilty for skipping mass on long run Sundays. :laugh5:

Good luck! Just remember that energy in the bank is better than time, in other words it's better to start out too slow rather than too fast. You can always pick up the pace in the second half (as is your plan).

I'd skip the Gu during the race if you haven't used it in training. It's a bit of racing superstition that you shouldn't do anything on race day that you didn't do (or wear) during training but it's also practical in that it could upset your stomach. Unless, of course, you've used Gu in other races then you should know how you react to it.